


The Catechism of the Catholic Church

by DJClawson



Series: Theodore Nelson's Adventures in Sharing a Workspace [14]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Iron Fist (TV)
Genre: Avengers - Freeform, Cafeteria Catholics, Catholicism, Elektra - mentioned, F/M, Family Drama, Grief, Homophobic Language, Homosexuality, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Matt's Abandonment Issues, Minor Frank Castle/Karen Page
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 16:30:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18014375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJClawson/pseuds/DJClawson
Summary: Matt's made his peace with the many contradictions within Church doctrine. Theo has not.





	The Catechism of the Catholic Church

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to LachesisMeg for her beta work!
> 
> I've repurposed the three kids we see address Foggy as "uncle" in episode 2, as Foggy and Theo don't seem to have any other siblings. Their parents are OCs. 
> 
> Comments and prompts are always welcome!

Matt was starting to wonder what Theo looked like.

Normally he didn’t care, didn’t even think about things like that anymore. And if he wasn’t trying to hit on someone, he felt too embarrassed to ask to feel their face. He’d done that with Foggy in college specifically because Foggy offered. There weren’t a lot of other people he knew that well - Karen he knew was thin and blonde - and he didn’t want to give off weird vibes. He’d missed his chance with Marci when he hadn’t done it during their one night together in the dorm while she was broken up with Foggy. He was sure his mother would describe herself if he asked, but not in glowing terms - she was too modest and self-effacing for that.

And Theo, despite his public posturing, described himself as, “not the most handsome guy.” He said, “You lucked out in this case. Or I did.”

Theo did not have the sturdiest of self-esteems. Maybe it was because he felt he had to hide who he was for so long. Matt could empathize, but he didn’t want to spell it out for him. This was his first relationship since Elektra and the first relationship other than Elektra where the other person knew about his senses, about his fucked up childhood, even about the mask.

And Matt knew he could not fuck this up. Foggy reminded him of it constantly.

Matt knew Theo was smaller than Foggy - shorter, thinner, smaller face, probably would look that way even if he wasn’t so thin. Without his muscles from carting and cutting up meat, he would probably be downright scraggly. He had long hair. He didn’t have a beard but he was lazy about shaving. All of his clothing was soft, even his work clothes. He said he could not stand “office” clothes, couldn’t understand how Matt, who hated cotton, could stand them. His old sheets were warm flannel, before he invested in silk, which Matt felt a little guilty about because he hadn’t asked for Theo to buy them and Sadie was going to town kneading them with her claws, ensuring that they wouldn’t last long.

Theo surrounded himself with cozy things. His apartment was lived in - he’d been there for over a decade - with things crammed in every corner. Mismatched furniture made of different materials, worn down by age. Knick knacks on shelves, souvenirs from a life lived in one place. Theo had Christmas lights framing the window by his bed that he turned on sometimes at night when the overhead light went off. There were pictures on the walls in cheap frames. Everything smelled of Theo, cat litter, a little of Foggy, spilled beer, and weed. The place was so _inhabited_ that it made Matt self-conscious when he went back to his spacious, empty apartment.

Matt was happy to sleep at Theo’s place, and Theo was happy to have him, even if Matt just crawled into bed exhausted after beating up gang members at the docks or stopping an assault behind a bar. Theo never made any demands of him. He didn’t even ask to snuggle, and he loved snuggling.

Theo was the very opposite of Elektra.

Matt still couldn’t think properly about Elektra. Every time he checked that wound, it was still open and throbbing and he didn’t know what to do with it. No one had known Elektra like he had except Stick, who was also dead, and maybe no one had _loved_ Elektra like Matt. Foggy had hated her, Karen probably resented her, and the rest of the Defenders definitely had an issue with her. Matt couldn’t lay all that on Theo. _He_ could barely carry it.

“You never talk about her,” Maggie said.

He didn’t call her Mom. But he’d dropped the Sister part of her name somehow, so that was something. The other nuns, if they ever heard anything, probably just thought he was being disrespectful.

“What is there to say?” Matt asked. “She died in my arms. We had a funeral. We buried her. Then she did it again, and this time I can’t even bury her. I can’t even be sure she’s dead.”

Maggie did not pull punches. “Do you want her to be dead?”

Matt sighed. He didn’t want to answer, but he felt like giving her something. These meetings weren’t helpful if he didn’t bring an offering. “I don’t know. I don’t want her to die, I just - can’t get past her.”

“You don’t have to get past grief,” Maggie said. “It just lessens. Unless you’re bottling up all of your emotions, but I’ve never known you to do that.”

“I’m talking to you.”

“Do you talk to anyone else about it?”

Matt shrugged noncommittally. She would understand that answer but not accept it. He was willing to try anyway.

“Why is it coming up now? Just for fun?”

“I’m - in a relationship. A good one,” he said. He didn’t have to explain. She knew about Theo. “It’s not my longest. It’s my second-longest. Elektra is still in first place. I loved her. She loved me. We were in love, we did dangerous things, I guess I never thought about what we were doing together. I was just trying to stay a step ahead of her, but I never could. Now - this thing with Theo, it’s comfortable.”

“G-d forbid you should be comfortable, Matthew.”

He smiled. “I don’t want to lead him on.”

“To what? You said he already knows everything about you. Is he expecting a proposal?”

“Definitely not.” He took a moment to find his words. He felt like he had to choose them carefully around her, not because he had to impress her but because she kept him on his toes. “Good people don’t stick around me.”

“Is he that kind of person?”

He corrected, “Sometimes I don’t stick around them.”

“I’ll leave you to guess what side of the family _that_ came from,” Maggie said as she sipped from her mug. “I know what it feels like when nothing is going right in your life. It doesn’t have to be our natural state. We don’t have to be so concerned about dealing with the bad things that we don’t have time for the good things.”

“What Gospel is that from?”

“The Gospel of Don’t Push Me, Matthew.”

 _Yeah, Mom, I love you too_. Even if he did not know if he could ever say it.

  


“Only you could be cheery after going to church,” Foggy said as they met up on the way to work. “I don’t even know how you get up for it. 7 am Mass. That’s just cruel! Did you even have any sleep or were you perched on a rooftop somewhere?”

“Too cold.”

“And suddenly I love the winter,” Foggy said. “Except for this part. Ice up ahead. Like a solid sheet because one jerk at the Verizon store didn’t salt the sidewalk like he should have.”

Matt knew how to walk on ice, but he was relieved when it was over. He could tell who was in the shop before they entered but he let Foggy deal with it.

“Do I even want to know what this is about?” Foggy said to Danny, who was standing behind the register, ready to spring into action at the sign of a customer. “Danny, did you lose a bet? Is this a Prince and the Pauper thing?”

Danny pointed to his chest and said, “My nametag clearly says ‘Trevor,’ so I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, brilliant disguise, cover of Time magazine,” Foggy said. “Theo! I know it’s your business but you should probably explain yourself!”

Theo came in from the back room. “Me? It was Danny’s idea.”

“Seventy-seven percent of Americans work in the service industry,” Danny said. “Specifically in retail or customer service. How can I run a company that employs the common man when I know nothing about him?”

Matt burst into laughter and Foggy said, “Look, just give your money to charity. Nobody needs this!” He pointed to Theo. “Tell me you’re not paying him.”

“I’m paying him like a normal employee. Minimum wage and a sandwich. He insisted,” Theo said. “He also said if he gets something wrong, I can hit him with a yardstick, because that’s how he was trained, but I’m not going to do that.”

“I can handle it,” Danny said, sounding amused at Theo’s reluctance.

“I’m not hitting you!”

“Then how will you motivate me?”

“Existential dread at not being able to pay your rent or medical bills,” Foggy said. “That’s why anyone works in customer service.”

“Well, I think it’s nice,” Matt said. Mostly because he knew Theo needed more help around the shop. And he knew Foggy was now glaring at him. “Good luck with a career in customer service.”

Danny was his usual enthusiastic self. “Have a nice day!”

They passed into the back room and exchanged good mornings with Theo on the way.

“Don’t bother him about it,” Matt said to Foggy as he put his briefcase down.

“Did you have a hand in this?”

“Danny gets ideas and sometimes it’s better to just run with them.”

Karen arrived while Matt set up his computer, which always took some time, especially since he had to take it home for security reasons. “Morning. Since I’m not allowed to make any, did anyone bring coffee?”

“Yes. Speaking of,” Foggy got up and opened the employee fridge. “Hey! Where’s the Irish for my coffee?”

“Clean week!” Theo shouted from the other room.

“Shit,” Foggy said, closing the door in disgust. “I did not agree to that!”

“Executive decision! It’s my fridge!”

“I’m bringing booze tomorrow!”

“You can’t store it here!”

Foggy shook his head in disgust and Karen said, “Should I ask?”

“We’re such drunks that sometimes we have to get sober to remind ourselves to not be drunks. No alcohol, no weed. Did you hear that Theo? No weed!”

“I know the rules!”

“We might have overdone it recently,” Matt explained.

“During the snowstorm?” Karen asked.

“We had an unexpected guest.”

“Spider-man,” Foggy said. “Because _Matt_ thought it would be great to just hand out his address to anyone who fights crime.”

Karen seemed a little excited about the prospect. “You got drunk with Spider-man?”

“Foggy was drunk. I was merely high,” Matt said.

“You were so high you thought drinking beer would help you think straight.”

“I was very high,” Matt clarified. “And Spider-man - and you don’t officially know this - is underage.”

“What?”

“Sixteen. Spider-man is sixteen,” Foggy said. “Not that I didn’t drink at sixteen. Matt? Were you sneaking communion wine?”

“Before it was consecrated, of course,” Matt said. “It was awful. I don’t know why the Church insists on the cheapest possible supply. But no, we did not let him drink. Or do anything else. He slept on my bed and went home.”

“Probably had a snow day at school,” Foggy mumbled into his coffee.

“That can’t be legal, can it? Having a minor in the Avengers?”

“He’s old enough to be employed,” Matt said. “I’m sure Stark has a legal team to defend his irresponsible decision making.”

“Sounds very irresponsible,” Karen said. “But that’s pretty much what Stark does? Mess with forces he doesn’t understand?”

“Woah! Some cruel editorializing from Ms. Page,” Foggy said with mock-offense. “Just because he inadvertently helped destroy Hell’s Kitchen. And Sokovia. And maybe the world? And now he’s endangering a minor? You’re going to hold all of that against him?”

“He cut a deal with the city so Stark Industries pays _nothing_ in corporate taxes,” Karen said.

“Start building the gallows,” Matt said. “Foggy, your phone is buzzing.”

“I’m aware.” It was buried deep in his suit jacket and he had been politely ignoring it. “We don’t all need super senses.” He looked at the screen. “Andy’s wife had another kid. A girl.”

“Oh, tell him congratulations,” Matt said. He wasn’t on the family channel despite being invited because he hated toggling the app. Its accessibility functions were embarrassingly bad. “From all of us.”

Foggy looked at Karen. “You want to go to the christening? It’s the only time you’ll see a Nelson at church: christenings, weddings, and funerals.”

“Your mom goes to Mass sometimes,” Matt said. They didn’t go to the same church - he just knew she went from time to time.

“Theo did time in Sunday school for a few years. I stopped in kindergarten,” Foggy said. “Never got past eating cookies and a nice woman singing songs to us about Jesus’s love. _Theo!_ ” he shouted. “ _Did you hear?_ ”

“He’s fixing the mechanical slicer,” Matt said.

“I’ll leave him alone, then,” Foggy said. “I’d rather have a brother with all his limbs.”

  


Matt and Theo had, separately, very long days. It was well after eight before Matt made it over to Theo’s place.

“There’s food in the fridge.” Theo gestured in the general direction of the kitchen. He was on his couch, but it was too short and he had to put his feet up over the armrest. “I’m sorry I’m not more enthusiastic. And there’s beer - you don’t have to keep sober just because I’m doing it.”

“No, it’s a good reminder.” Not that he drank as much as he used to - being Daredevil kept him sober on most nights. He took out the plate prepared for him. Theo cooked simply, which Matt preferred. Theo knew how to cut back on the salt and grease for Matt’s palate. “How did things go with Danny?”

“He might not have a bright future at a register,” Theo said. “But don’t tell him that. I don’t want to crush his dreams.”

Matt leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks for dinner. Sorry I’m late.”

“It’s fine. I was late, too. I don’t know how Mom and Pop did it with just part-time workers.”

“There were two of them.”

“It’s obvious when you say it,” Theo said. “Oh! And Andy and Jo asked me to be their daughter’s godfather.”

“That’s nice.”

“It means Foggy is up next. And I have to put on a tie again.” But he still sounded excited. Maybe he thought he would have to get married first before he got that honor.

“How are you related to Andy?” Matt just knew that Andy’s kids called Foggy and Theo uncle, but that really meant nothing in the Nelson family.

“Cousins. Real cousins - our fathers are brothers. Andy and I are the same age, so we were close going up. But then I went to college in Brooklyn and his family moved out to Long Island, which might as well be the West Coast, and he got a job in construction.”

“He’s the one who works in construction?”

“Like half of us have at one point or another. I shouldn’t tell you this, but someone said they saw Karen at a construction site, delivering lunch to a guy named Pete.”

Matt chewed his sandwich. “Really?”

“Some real quiet guy. Gets paid under the table, which isn’t unusual. Doesn’t socialize a lot.”

“That does ring a bell.”

“So you do know him!”

“I mean no, I have no idea, and that probably wasn’t Karen,” Matt said. “That was a nice save, right?”

“If she’s going to be secretive we’re just going to get more curious.”

Matt said nothing. His sandwich had a lot of lettuce, which produced a satisfying crunch. Sadie came out of the closet and mewed at him.

“Ignore her. She ate,” Theo said. His eyes were probably closed.

“Do you want to go to bed?”

“It’s too early. I’ll just wake up in two hours.”

Matt was getting a second wind from the food. “Can I ask you a question?”

“You can try.”

“Why don’t you want to go to church?”

Matt had asked Theo if he wanted to come to Mass precisely once, and while Theo had been polite, the ‘no’ had been rather firm, communicating a lot in one syllable. Matt never pushed people about this topic, so he just let it be at the time.

“It’s boring and I don’t like it.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie, but he was definitely skirting around the issue. So Matt pried. “Foggy said you went to Sunday school.”

“That’s true.”

“But he didn’t.”

Theo’s face scrunched up. “Nothing happened, if that’s what you’re thinking. I mean, I didn’t get touched by a priest. Though one of my problems with the Church is that I have to specify that when someone asks me about not going to church anymore. That’s pretty fucked up.”

“It is fucked up.”

“Did anything ever happen to you?”

Matt shook his head. “I liked my priest.”

“The one who died recently?”

“Father Lantom. And yes. There were others, but no, nothing ever happened. I mean, other than my mom secretly being a nun at my orphanage and they hired a guy to help me with my senses who taught me how to fight in a secret ninja war.”

“You win the story contest of most fucked-up childhoods.”

“It’s not a contest.”

“Too bad. You won it.” Theo turned on his side. “I don’t want you to tell anyone this.”

“Of course.”

Theo sighed, preparing himself. “So when I was a kid, the priest was really old and really mean. He was a fire and brimstone type. Big on long, angry sermons. Popular with the type of people who expect that thing. My dad wasn’t a fan. I remember that. I thought Church was okay - a boring way to spend a Sunday, but it was what you did because it was important. And then I started going to confession. When you started going to confession, did you know what to say?”

“No,” Matt said. “My dad told me just to say what was in my heart, and my teacher gave me a cheatsheet to read off the first time.”

“But you hadn’t figured out to leave stuff out.”

“No. I didn’t start doing that until my dad died.”

Theo nodded. “I didn’t really know what to say. This priest - I don’t think I’d ever been alone with him, ever said anything to him. He talked to adults and I wasn’t an adult. I was really scared of him. So he prompted me - did I do this? Did I do that? How did I treat my parents? Did I believe in Christ? Did I have sinful thoughts about girls? And no, being the idiot that I was, I told him I had thoughts about boys. They weren’t very sophisticated thoughts - I mean, I was seven - but he dug in with that. He told me I was a sinner with sinful thoughts and I had to pray for G-d to help me.”

Matt knew where this story was going, more or less, but he kept quiet.

“Obviously, I didn’t stop being gay just because I asked G-d to change me. I didn’t even know what being gay was. I just knew that I was bad, and each week I prayed and I didn’t get better, and that if I didn’t shape up, I was going to Hell and it was my own fault.” He paused, as if he needed what he was saying to sink in for himself. “After a while I got really depressed. I started doing poorly at school, I got in fights - that sort of thing. My parents noticed. There were probably some parent-teacher meetings.

“So my dad sat me down, and asked me what the hell was going on. But he was much nicer about it. It took a while, and finally I told him I was bad, and I knew because the priest told me, and I was a sinner and I was damned. I didn’t say why, no matter how much he pushed me, because I could never tell him that - but to Pop’s credit, he said to me, ‘That’s some bullshit. You’re not a bad person. You’re a good kid.’ He said the priest was full of shit. And he cursed at work, but never to me, so this was like, the most horrifying thing, hearing your dad curse. You knew he was serious. Did your dad curse?”

“Never around me,” Matt said. “Not even at the gym.”

“Because he was a dad. That’s what dads do,” Theo said. “He asked what would make me feel better, and I said I didn’t want to go to confession anymore. But everyone in class went to confession, so he said he would talk to Mom, and I wouldn’t have to go back to Sunday school ever again. After I made First Communion, the whole family stopped going. We went to church every week and then suddenly we didn’t. Mom still goes, but she never asks us to come with her. Even Pop doesn’t go with her.” He added, “I know the Church is important to you, but I want nothing to do with it. Any of it. G-d’s fine, He’s up there in the sky, but I don’t have much to do with Him. I don’t curse him and he doesn’t curse me. Everything else - I can’t be a cafeteria Catholic. It’s just too weird. I suppose that’s not very mature - not to be over something someone told you when you were a little kid.”

“No,” Matt insisted. “We see things very simply when we’re kids. Everything has such an effect on us that influences us as adults whether we want it to or not. It’s why I want to forgive my mom and I just can’t. Because I remember being lonely, and she was there the whole time.”

“It’s still fucked up.”

“It’s still not a contest. Maybe my priest didn’t have answers for me but he didn’t kick me when I was down. He told me to use my gifts - that’s what he called them. Gifts.”

“To beat people up?”

“I don’t think that was his exact intention, but it’s how I took it.” He moved to the bed, so he was facing away from Theo, and took off his glasses. “Look, I’m not going to apologize for the Church or for G-d. I’m not to ask you to change your mind about what happened. It was a truly messed up thing to happen to anyone at any age, and I wish I could undo it, but I can’t. The way you feel about the Church is valid. And your dad - your dad is one of the best people I know. Even if I didn’t think that before, I would think it now. I’ve never thought about anyone judging me because of whom I sleep with, or whom I love, but that’s because aside from your family, I’d had no one to do it. But that’s not better. It’s better to have a family that supports you. Even if it gets complicated sometimes.” He continued, “Have you ever told anyone this?”

Theo shook his head.

“Does it feel better to talk about it?”

Theo was choked up, but he paused and then said, “Yeah, it does. I think.”

“You can talk to me about these things,” Matt said, putting a hand over Theo’s. “I’m not going to tell anyone. You know I’m good for it.”

“Really? You’re a good liar? Because I think half of Hell’s Kitchen knows you’re Daredevil.”

“You know you’re going to say the lines about rejecting the Devil and all of his works during the christening, right?”

That got a smile out of Theo. “Oh G-d! This is gonna kill me.”

“Yeah, you’d better get your laughs out now,” Matt said. “I think I might have to prep Foggy, too.”

  


As it turned out, yes, Matt should have prepped Foggy. Unfortunately, they were in the first row of the church. Fortunately, Foggy had the good sense to lean right into Matt’s suit jacket to stifle his laughter. His parents weren’t there to glare at him - they had already used up their travel budget going back and forth to Florida for the time being - so Foggy and Theo were representing this particular branch of the family in their absence.

The reception was at Andy and Josephine’s house in Long Island, not far from their church. The kids played in the driveway, trying to get the basketball in the net but mostly having it end up in the snowbank piled up from plow after plow. Because it was too cold to spill out into the backyard, things were a bit noiser and more crowded than Matt was used to. The new baby, named Mary after her godmother (Josephine’s friend from college) disappeared pretty quickly for a nap, as new babies tended to do. There were the usual Nelson family antics - light to moderate drinking, too many kids to count or identify, and people making corny lawyer jokes in Matt and Foggy’s direction. Cake was handed out on paper plates and Theo dumped his slice onto Foggy’s plate, and Foggy unceremoniously accepted. People talked behind Matt and Karen’s backs about whether they were an item. Marci weathered a lot of speculation about her marital status with good humor and liquor. Someone made a joke about doing something illegal in front of Brett.

A lot of people asked Matt about Theo now that they were working in the same space, as if Matt would have secret gossip that he would be more willing to share than Foggy. Most of them were just about the status of the shop, for which everyone had stories. It had, in the Nelson family telling, alternately been an underground casino, an opium den (and they actually used the word “opium”), a speakeasy, and a stop on the Underground Railroad. Nevermind that it was opened in 1957, of course. At least one cousin (someone on the younger side, but Matt couldn’t recall his name) quietly asked if Theo had a grow factory in the basement, and how he could get in on that. Only one person asked if Matt had seen him with a boyfriend, to which Matt replied, “I never see anything,” in a tone that did not make it clear if he was serious or joking.

People started to clear out and the house got less crowded. Karen was their ride, so she had to stay sober, but nobody else did, especially now that clean week was over. The baby came back out and Theo was positively beaming as he sat in the chair in the den with her in his lap. Everyone in the Nelson family knew how to hold a baby - they even knew they could trust Matt with a newborn and he didn’t have to remind them he grew up in an orphanage.

Because things had been going too perfectly, when most of the others were in the kitchen or the dining room, someone (a cousin, clearly, not that Matt could keep them straight) came up to Theo and said, “Hey, fag.”

“Scott!” Theo said, holding up the baby. “Tiny ears. And you get one of those, and you’ve used it up.”

“I’ve been calling you a fag for years.”

“And I’ve never appreciated it,” Theo said, a little more firmly. “So cut it out.”

“You don’t have to take it so personally, but I always knew.”

Theo’s face was hot. “I am taking it personally. Cut it out.”

“But it is accurate, huh? All this time, you’ve been - “

“What I’ve been is none of your business, jerk,” Theo said, holding himself back from cursing because of the baby.

“Fag.”

“Say it one more time,” Theo said, “And I’ll have Matt hit you.”

‘Scott’ turned to Matt, who had been on the other side of the room. “You’re kidding me.”

“I’m holding my goddaughter, so I can’t. But Matt will do it.”

Scott turned his head back and forth between them to catch their expressions, then said, “Faggot.”

“Matt,” Theo pleaded. “I mean, I don’t actually want you to do it.”

But Theo was lying. Matt knew that and Theo probably knew that Matt knew that. Matt put his cane against the wall and said, “Okay, where is he?”

“Right in front of you,” Scott said, stepping into that position. “If you can find me.”

Matt swung his arm out wildly until it found Scott’s chest. “You ready? Because I don’t tolerate slurs, either.”

“Give it your best shot.”

“Not in the face,” Theo whispered.

Matt obliged, and punched him in the gut, then pushed him over, so that when he curled up and vomited sheet cake and bud light it hit the floor and not Matt’s shoes.

And then someone shouted, “Fight! Fight!”

There weren’t any more blows. Scott couldn’t get up fast enough, and he wasn’t willing to hit Matt, and Theo was sitting down with an infant in his arms. Andy raced in and acted like there had been a major rumble - which, to be fair, happened at Nelson gatherings - and told everyone to calm down.

Someone told Foggy what happened, and he burst into laughter. “What, you thought Matt wasn’t going to hit him?”

“I told him I was going to hit him,” Matt said. “I gave him plenty of warning.”

“He’s blind!” someone who was not Scott shouted from the back.

“Yeah, and his dad was a boxer!” Foggy said. This was now his favorite thing. “Dude, he didn’t have a babysitter. He did his homework at the gym where his dad trained. When he could see. _Of course_ he knows how to throw a punch, dickweed.”

“Asshole!”

There was almost another fight, but Josephine came in to collect her baby and restore some order to the room. Like all Nelson fights, it ended with a round of forced apologies and an unwise round of drinks. Scott read the room, and realized people were not on his side, so he stalked off to cool his head.

“Relax,” Matt told Theo. “I hit him where he’s got plenty of padding.”

“I probably shouldn’t have done that.”

“If you hadn’t, I might have hit him anyway.”

Theo, as always, was too kind. “He’s in the middle of a messy divorce. He’s got a lot of his mind.”

“He still shouldn’t have said it,” Andy chimed in. “I don’t think he’ll do it again.”

Everyone was suitably calmed down, and some people were lamenting that the fight hadn’t lasted longer. Usually punches were pulled in family fights, and Matt had certainly not hit Scott as hard as he could have (or broken ribs like he wanted to), but he still had to apologize.

They were pretty ready to get out of there. Theo took a moment with Andy in the back, and when he met them at Karen’s car, he explained, “It’s all fine. Though Andy might have made me promise to wire Olivia’s new dollhouse with electric lights. Which sounds like a fun project anyway.”

“I suppose I should tell you that you shouldn’t have punched Scott,” Foggy said, “but you definitely should have punched Scott.”

“Please, I’ve seen Matt work on a bag,” Karen said. “That was a light tap.”

“Can we talk about Matt’s skills when we’re back in a reasonable borough?” Marci said, and they were off.

  


Family fight aside - and that was easy to put aside, because there was almost always at least one fight at a Nelson family gathering - Theo was happy with how the day day turned out. He was ecstatic about being a godfather, even if it didn’t require much of him at the moment, Mary being an infant of two experienced parents with plenty of hand-me-downs and new gifts to ensure that she had everything a baby needed. And he was already doing research for the dollhouse project for Olivia, the oldest of the four siblings who referred to Foggy and Theo (and Matt) as “uncle” even if it wasn’t technically correct. Clearly, it was good for him to have something to focus on other that the shop.

Because Theo was a gentle soul, when they were back in his apartment, he tried to apologize for asking Matt to hit Scott, which Matt would not accept.

“He was an asshole and he deserved it,” Matt said. “Plus I’ve never been in a Nelson family fight before. Everyone’s afraid I’ll get hurt.”

“Stay with us long enough, you were going to punch that V-card sooner or later,” Theo said. Even he’d been in that position, but only when he was very drunk and the fight involved at least ten people. “Brett won’t admit it now, but when he was a teenager, he punched Dave in the face. Gave him a huge black eye.”

But Scott was still family and Theo would forgive (and maybe file away, but not forget). Theo loved his family - loved being a brother, a son, a cousin, an uncle, now a godfather - and Matt could see how Theo could be so afraid to lose that all by coming out, even if it hadn’t gone that way, even if the Nelsons were too good for that.

Even if the Nelsons were too good for someone like Matt, who was unhappy that he hadn’t hurt Scott _more_ for hurting Theo. Matt, who hurt people, physically and emotionally, for a living and for fun.

“Matt,” Theo said, “stop thinking. I’m watching it and it looks _painful_.”

Theo, who was too good for Matt. Matt felt the urge to bolt. Foggy would eventually forgive him. Even Theo would eventually forgive him, that was how good he was.

“Yeah, okay,” Matt said and joined Theo on the bed, sliding in the very small slot between Theo and Sadie.

He wanted to flee.

But he did not. 

The End


End file.
